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So That's What They Mean by Glamping

It was late autumn in Pembrokeshire and I’d been looking forward
to this new camping experience. This
wasn’t just camping. This was posh camping, or what they call ‘glamping’.

Inside the Dome Tent

I love camping. But
this was something very different - this was posh camping, or what they call ‘glamping’.

The tent was a dome tent – not the ‘2-man squash yourself,
your rucksack, your partner and his smelly shoes into a portable shelter made
of cloth’ kind of tent. No, this was a 20ft
geodesic dome tent with raised wooden flooring, a double bed with down duvet, a
wooden row of coat pegs and storage box by the entrance for the aforementioned shoes,
and a wood burning stove – all inside the tent.

Close by was a small wooden kitchen, raised and open on all
sides except for the roof. It contained everything a camp kitchen required,
including a cat who took up residence as soon as the tent became occupied.

When it got dark, I sat in a chair and read by the firelight
while enjoying a piping hot mug of tea. In
bed, I listened to the night: tawny owls screeching, a hedgehog rummaging and
acorns falling from overhanging branches.

I could see why they called
it posh camping. All the good bits of
camping without the crawling about on your hands and knees, squatting over a
tiny gas cooker while looking for somewhere level to place your mug. No need to search for flat, even ground. No rocks or pinecones hidden under your ground
sheet and no need to worry about pitching on a slope and sliding down the
inside of your sleeping bag.

This was
camping at its best. However, there is one thing unappealing about camping. You
can put all the home comforts in a giant- windowed dome tent and wrap it up in
whatever term you like, but there's nothing glam about glamping when you
are forced to leave your comfy warm bed and do the moonlight toilet trek.